As generations change and electronics evolve, you would think students would adapt well to online tests. If you had the choice, how would you take your End of Course (EOC) tests?

Throughout elementary school I took all of my tests on paper. Then in sixth grade, I was told I would have to take my English EOC on a computer. At first it seemed cool. You get to take your test on a computer instead of looking at a boring piece of paper with text on it. Until you are actually taking the test, you don’t realize how inconvenient this is. Although you can still highlight key sentences, you can’t make handwritten annotations of the passage. Also with taking the test online each question is given its own page which makes it difficult. I would rather just have the test shown to me in full length and not have to scroll through it.

Although online testing is more efficient for grading, it comes at a cost. Each test costs approximately $4.25 to make, according to eSchool News. Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools (WSFCS) has about 55,000 students, which means they will be paying $233,750 for online testing this year. This is dependent on if each student in the county only took one test online. If each student had to take three exams, WSFCS is looking at a cost of $701,250.

With the laptops provided running on battery power, teachers have to rely on computer carts to charge them. During my English midterm, my class encountered many problems with the laptops  not turning on. With only half of the class’ laptops cooperating, the other half had to go to the classroom across the hall to get laptops to take the test. During the EOCs at the end of second semester, many teachers won’t have extra laptops for students to borrow, and that is a problem.

With the paper tests, students are able to have the material right in front of them, and they do not have to play around with the scroll bar. They won’t have to suffer from a headache caused by prolonged screen time. School systems should stop assuming that we enjoy online tests and give us the “old-fashioned” way back.